Auto Biography Analysis

Hellen Keller

I analyzed Helen Keller’s autobiography because I was interested in how she processed her sudden shift into darkness. How to see and hear one moment and then to have it disappear the next. Though she was young when I feel like it would cause a closeness in yourself to happen when you seem to be the only person you can speak to. In her autobiography she wrote great descriptions of the memories of her home growing up and seemed to have a positive outlook on life. I only read the one chapter and I suppose I was hoping for more of the “diary” experience instead of the carefully pronounced thoughts that were placed for an over all purpose. I wanted the honesty of the moment analysis (which I found to be extremely hard to find about anyone) but I suppose that the “in the moment” thoughts with Helen Keller would have been in possible. She did, however, describe so beautifully the moments before her illness of being the garden as she wrote, “What joy it was to lose myself in that garden of flowers, to wander happily from spot to spot, until, coming suddenly upon a beautiful vine, I recognized it by its leaves and blossoms, and knew it was the vine which covered the tumble-down summer-house at the farther end of the garden!” I really felt like I was able to imagine with so much detail the actually garden in which she herself was discovering. I also loved when she wrote,“The beginning of my life was simple and much like every other little life. I came, I saw, I conquered, as the first baby in the family always does.” I felt like this was very poetic and relatable. Her experiences were profound and and I find her to be extremely courageous for coming out on top and discovering how to discover the world again as she writes,“Then, in the dreary month of February, came the illness which closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a new-born baby.”I couldn’t imagine this happening to be and I found her speaking on her experience to be so beautiful and poetic as she describes the moments leading up to her losing her site as her going “away from the once-loved light, which came to me dim and yet more dim each day.”And then to be left in that place in which you no longer can remember what it was like before this as she writes,“Gradually I got used to the silence and darkness that surrounded me and forgot that it had ever been different”. 

This experience to me is truly significant and was a very interesting read. I couldn’t imagine going through anything like this and find her to be extremely brave and exactly the line she wrote above, “she came she saw she conquered”

Tina Fey

I then decided to analyze Tina Feys autobiography to lighten the mood up a little bit. Tina Fey, a comedian/actress/writer. I absolutely loved the short chapter I was able to read online. She is HILARIOUS. You can just feel her personality come through this entire book which I found to be so interesting how writing, a flat combination of letters placed on paper, could in fact allow your personality to shine so beautifully.She made light of her scar that she has on her face and the fuss her friends and family made over it, giving her an “inflated sense of self”, later realizing that the attention was not because she was “beautiful” but because they felt “sorry” for her. I loved how funny Tina Fey made every honest situation and left me feeling inspired to “be myself” as she made the honestly look so beautiful and refreshing. Tina Fey went over awkward moments of her growing up and reading the whole first chapter made me want to but the entire book. I felt automatically like I could read it forever, which was very different from reading the Helen Keller autobiography (for obvious reasons) because it engaged me straight from the beginning. Helen Keller I think I approached it as this profound experience that I was going to gain some distant but useful insight on a matter I would never understand. Tina Fey was light and could easily, being a journey through her woman hood, relatable as I am a woman. Even though this was a published autobiography I felt like there was so much honesty in her writing that it made me love reading it!

Ozzy Osbourne

The next one I read was Ozzy Osbourne. This was was the best. I felt like again this showed so much honestly as though he was speaking through the story. He was really funny too as she talked about the first time he robbed a place. He said that he thought he was really coming up on some loot when in reality he grabbed some baby clothes. I just thought he was a funny only man who was going back on his young adolescent life when he thought he was so cool. I loved that he cussed through this book as though you were sitting next to him and he was telling you the story while having a beer or something. I also love the terms he uses like “quid” for money and so on. He talked about the first time he almost went to prison for stealing and how silly he was for wearing a “thumbless glove” that left perfect fingerprints all over the place for the cops to find. Then he talked about the town he grew up in and how there wasn’t much going on there. I liked that he started this book with how his dad said that he was “going to be somebody some day” and journeyed through his nothing times until his something times. 

Each of these analysis brought something new to the table, from serious to seriously funny, I found that each autobiography brought to life these characters that otherwise seemed so distant from the real world. I feel like I was able to actually see them in the rawness of their experiences. It helped to make them real for me. Each writer had different “moves” throughout their writing, whether it was to inspire and touch your heart or if it was to make light of situations through comedy. I found it enjoyable to ready each of these unique writings. Good laughs!